An amateur astronomer looking through data from NASA's Perseverance rover may have spotted interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS as it passed overhead.

On October 3, Comet 3I/ATLAS had its closest approach to Mars, passing by it at a distance of around 29 million kilometers (18 million miles). NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA) both planned to observe the sky during this timeframe using space robots such as Mars Express and the ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter, and we'll find out soon enough if they observed it from Mars' orbit. And possibly, as the case may be, by the Perseverance rover on the Red Planet's surface.

Here's where it gets a little murky. As the US space agency explains on its website, "NASA Operating Status: NASA is currently CLOSED due to a lapse in Government funding". While NASA is unable to post information on any data that may have been captured by its robots, Perseverance continues to send its raw images, which are available to the public to view. Looking through those images, some believe they have identified the interstellar object. While one has been picked up by the press and the Internet alike, this one is unlikely to be an image of 3I/ATLAS. However, another that has gone unnoticed by most media may be worthy of some further attention.